Judah Ari Gross is The Times of Israel s military correspondent.
Israeli rescue forces and police stand on the stairs where a mass of people were crushed to death and injured during the celebrations of the Lag B Omer holiday on Mount Meron, in northern Israel on April 30, 2021. (David Cohen/Flash90)
MOUNT MERON, Northern Galilee There are three exits from the venue on Mount Meron where tens of thousands of men and boys celebrated the ceremonial lighting of a massive torch for the holiday of Lag B’Omer at midnight on Thursday. And one of them, the southern exit, is a death trap.
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit speaks at an event at Bar Ilan University, March 4, 2020. (Flash90)
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit said Monday there is no legal obstacle that would prevent the current caretaker government from forming a state commission of inquiry into last week’s deadly Meron disaster.
The legal opinion was submitted in response to Justice Minister Benny Gantz, who requested the attorney general’s position on the feasibility of such a probe being created before a permanent government is sworn in. In appealing to Mandelblit, Gantz wrote that “only a state commission will be able to manage all aspects of an investigation into the disaster.”
Pakistan minorities await implementation of historic ruling
Vested interests blamed for interfering with the progress of a Supreme Court judgment to protect minority rights
New research assessing the Pakistan Supreme Court’s 2014 judgment to protect minority rights predicts its implementation will take more than two decades.
“During this period, a Supreme Court bench has conducted 23 follow-up hearings and passed nearly six dozen orders, yet Pakistan stands 21 years away from the finish line of full implementation, considering the existing pace of compliance,” the study states.
“The federal government reported the least number of compliance reports. No report had been submitted from Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir. Reportage from the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony and Ministry of Federal Education was in particular missing.”
Caught in tug of war between authorities, religious sects and interest groups, Israel's 2nd most-visited Jewish holy place has no full, official state oversight
Patriotic Front Deputy Media Director Antonio Mwanza says political violence works against the values of Zambia and the Patriotic front (PF) party because citizens in the country expect the ruling party to be a shining example.
Speaking during the discussion forum organized by Diamond TV, Mr Mwanza said President Edgar Chagwa Lungu has demonstrated that he is a leader that wants to unite all Zambians, adding that this is the more reason the motto of the party manifesto and constitution is ‘One Zambia One Nation’.
“That is the motto President Lungu and the entire Patriotic Front have been pushing,” he said.